[Author's Note: Anomaly #79: 'Look At Me Not' becomes exponentially stronger in the ninth month. Not the eighth month.]
"Fine," Neo clicked his tongue with annoyance. "I'll give you one vial of pure divine energy elixir later. Happy?"
As soon as he said that, the caterpillar rolled out of his pocket.
It had grown plump after doing nothing but eating for months.
The statue monsters jumped inside the crater to attack Neo.
The caterpillar opened its mouth and started to suck all time elementals present in the surroundings.
A beat later, the statue monsters froze, having lost their time.
Neo stood up before they could move.
He jumped out of the crater and looked at the statue monsters.
"They got themselves trapped in quite a nice place."
The caterpillar suddenly gagged, having consumed mimicked Time elementals of the Shadow World, and time started to move again.
The statue monsters turned around and noticed Neo standing outside of the crater.
Neo crouched and touched the ground.
"The eternal is not gaining any progress from sustaining physical attacks.
"I don't want to waste my time fighting you guys anymore."
The Divine Energy in his core churned.
The ground beneath his fingers began to decay, and the decay quickly spread.
The Tremor-ranked Spell
reached Adept Mastery a few days ago.
It allowed Neo to use [Link] – a qualitative upgrade to the Spell. Now, he could decay any one object that was indirectly in contact with him.
He, however, wasn't using the Link at the moment.
"Fall, and be buried along with this town."
The ground began to sink.
Neo carefully controlled the radius of
to not harm the ground around him.
He decayed the town's earth.
The plot of land cracked and started to sink.
Having reached Adept Mastery rank in the Spell, the Spell's range and power had drastically increased.
He used a large amount of Divine Energy and sank the town, burying the Anomalies along with it.
"Urgh, I feel like shit."
Neo stood up with a wince.
His core was drained.
The Tremor ranked Spell at Adept mastery was a major strain on his Divine Energy reserves.
"Yes, yes, I will give you the elixirs in a moment. Let me get to them."
Having defeated the Anomalies for today, Neo went toward Apollo and the others.
He found them staring at him with stunned expressions.
"Y-you…" Apollo stuttered, unable to form words.
Neo didn't understand what he was trying to say.
While waiting for Apollo to talk, he picked the backpack lying next to the sleeping Kane and took out two Divine Energy elixirs.
He placed one inside his pocket and cocked open the other, drinking its contents to refresh himself.
The caterpillar bit away the top of the vial and jumped into it.
Neo could hear it enjoying its swim inside the elixir vial.
"Neo….." Apollo called out to him.
"You can stop time?" he asked, worried and expectant.
'Why are they so shocked… ah!'
Neo realized a forgotten detail.
'Time control abilities are pretty rare at this time. Barely any information is available about controlling Time users, so everyone thinks Time users are overpowered.'
Neo wondered if this was how a modern man felt when the caveman was surprised at the sight of fire.
"I can't stop time," Neo answered. "I can devour it. It's similar, somewhat, but only similar."
Their conversation was cut short due to Kane's groan.
He sat up, blood leaking from his nostrils.
Apollo rushed to Kane's side and checked his pulse.
"How are you feeling right now? What happened with your battle with Anomaly #79?"
"Barely survived," Kane answered grimly.
His eyes swam around, searching for Neo.
'Please, Neo, be safe.'
He let out a sigh of relief when he noticed Neo a bit far from him, perfectly fine and dandy.
Apollo gave a short emergency treatment to Kane and left the matters to Athena.
She used an incantation to summon a giant water bubble fused with Holy Elemental energy.
It purified Kane and lightened his mental stress caused by the battle inside his dreams.
Although Kane was physically fine, his spirit had suffered a great deal of damage due to Anomaly #79's invasion.
He needed a few days' rest before he could fight again.
"He won't survive tomorrow's attack," Emma said.
"Fine, Emma," Apollo spoke through clenched teeth. "There is no need to say he will die tomorrow."
"That's the truth, though. We haven't reached Spain yet, let alone returned to the Association headquarters.
"How is he going to hold out until then if he was almost defeated on the first day?"
"If what? Are you going to help him?"
Apollo's mouth clamped shut.
He couldn't think of a retort.
Kane sat on the side with his head lowered.
Until yesterday, Anomaly #79 didn't look dangerous to him.
'I will die tomorrow. I can't win against Anomaly #79,' he thought.
He raised his head and stared at the shining stars.
There was no despair in Kane's eyes.
'It's fine if I die. I've lived long enough. But…'
Kane shifted his gaze and stared at Neo, finding him looking back at him.
'I need to repay Neo at least. He has given me so much.'
'Dying with a debt… I don't want to go out .'
His thoughts churned.
'The technique still needs a few weeks to complete. But if I only focus on the main points, I should be able to finish it today.'
'As for the minor details, Neo will have to figure them out himself.'
Kane had been creating a new technique for Neo for the past weeks.
Unlike the other seven techniques of his, he didn't create this on a whim.
Of course, his seven sword techniques were powerful even though he took only a few moments to create them.
Creating a technique suited to Neo was challenging.
Kane would've loved more time, but it didn't seem possible—
"I'll take care of it."
Neo's voice cut through Kane's despondent thoughts.
"There is no need to make Kane sleep from tomorrow. I'll fight the Anomalies alone that come to kill us."
It took him a few seconds to understand the meaning of Neo's words.
Before Kane could complain and convince Neo otherwise, Neo spoke,
"I'm not doing this to help you.
"My skill—Trait—grants me resistance against all types of damage.
"To train the trait, I need to get hit by different kinds of forces. I'm going to fight Anomaly #79 alone to level up my trait."
"It's not to help you. I'm doing this for myself," Neo spoke again, as if to assert his words.
Kane lowered his head, hiding his face behind his sleeves.
He wiped the tears and looked at Neo while trying his best to give a teasing grin.
"Sure, if you say so."
Neo made an annoyed look.
He didn't hate being thanked, but something about Kane's expression ticked him off.
He left before Apollo joined Kane's parade.
After Neo left, Apollo patted Kane's back.
"Don't worry. He will manage."